Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) allow devices to calculate their geospatial position based upon signals sent from GNSS satellites. Examples of GNSS include the Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), and Galileo. GNSS satellites carry very stable atomic clocks and continuously broadcast their current time and position which can be utilized by ground-based computing devices with receivers to calculate the computing device's position. For example, the computing devices receive radio transmissions from multiple satellites and calculate their position using constraint optimization techniques such least-squares minimization. Typically, a receiver needs at least 4 visible satellites to determine its location.
Some positioning applications require tracking the position of moving objects, such as wild animals, cars, or cargos. However, calculating position continuously may drain the battery of the computing device and may require the use a large amount of network bandwidth.